The SOPINE is a compute module powered by the same quad-core ARM Cortex A53 64-bit processor used in the PINE A64 with 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM memory, power management unit, SPI flash and integrated bootable microSD slot. The module features a SODIMM-DDR3 form-factor and can be paired with either the SOPINE Baseboard, the Clusterboard or a custom host PCB for industrial or other embedded applications.

The SOPINE module has a five-year LTS (long-term supply) status, which means that it will be supplied to 2022 at the very least. There is a one-year warranty period for the SOPINE module. It is fully compatible with the PINE A64-LTS in terms of software support

Software

Releases

Note that SOPINE images are also compatible with the PINE A64-LTS.

Linux

AOSC

AOSC OS is a general purpose Linux distribution that strives to simplify user experience and improve free and open source software for day-to-day productivity. To learn more about AOSC, please visit the official AOSC website.

Download:

• https://aosc.io/downloads/ (supports the microSD card and eMMC, 8GB or more)

Armbian

Armbian is a Linux distribution designed for ARM boards. They are usually Debian or Ubuntu flavored.

Download:

• https://armbian.hosthatch.com/archive/pine64so/archive/

FreedomBox

FreedomBox is a private server for non-experts: it lets you install and configure server applications with only a few clicks. For more information about FreedomBox, please visit https://www.freedombox.org.

Download:

• Direct download from FreedomBox site (418MB)

Notes:

• This is a headless build, not HDMI output.
• Please plug-in Ethernet cable first before initial power up. After power up for 10 minutes, using browser and type in https://fredombox.local to setup. Browser may warms for unsecure site and please proceed with exception.
• Freedom Manual: https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual

LibreELEC

LibreELEC is a “Just enough OS” Linux distribution combining the Kodi media center with an operating system.

Download:

• Pine A64+ build direct download from Libreelec nightly (look for LibreELEC-A64.arm-…-nightly-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxx-pine64-lts.img.gz)

Notes:

• Nightly build for microSD and eMMC boot.

NEMS Linux

NEMS stands for “Nagios Enterprise Monitoring Server” and it is a modern pre-configured, customized and ready-to-deploy Nagios Core image designed to run on low-cost micro computers. To find out more on NEMS Linux, please visit their site.

Download:

• Direct download from pine64.org (supports the microSD card, 16GB or more, MD5 of the xz file is 5ad0d684296d50b4c1fcbac6db205ae0)
• Download torrent seed from NEMS Linux (supports the microSD card, 16GB or more, MD5 of the xz file is 6e2088922c5d197db8b8ba3057120389)

OpenEmbedded

OpenEmbedded is the build framework for embedded Linux. OpenEmbedded offers a best-in-class cross-compile environment. It allows developers to create a complete Linux Distribution for embedded systems. See https://www.openembedded.org/wiki/Main_Page for more information on OpenEmbedded.

Download:

• https://github.com/alistair23/meta-pine64/

Notes:

• OpenEmbedded/Yocto layer for the Pine64 boards
• This layer aims to support as many features as possible on Pine64 devices. Where possible the layer aims to use opensource and upstream projects avoiding custom forks and binary solutions.
• More information and instructions can be found in the repo readme: https://github.com/alistair23/meta-pine64/#building

OpenWRT

OpenWRT community build for microSD boot. The OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices.

Download:

• Direct download (look for pine64_sopine-baseboard-ext4-sdcard.img.gz and pine64_sopine-baseboard-squashfs-sdcard.img.gz)

Notes:

• This is headless build, please use serial console to configure

BSD

NetBSD

NetBSD is a free, fast, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system. To learn more about NetBSD please visit NetBSD main page.

Download:

• Direct download (select PINE A64-LTS / SoPine with baseboard)

Notes:

• NetBSD community build for microSD boot
• Instructions concerning enabling SSH can be found here

Linux BSP SDK

Linux BSP Kernel 4.9

Download:

• Direct Download from pine64.org (5.40GB, MD5 of the TAR-GZip 7736e3c4d50c021144d125cc4ee047a4)

Android SDK

Android Oreo (v8.1)

Download:

• Direct Download from pine64.org (24.94GB, MD5 of the TAR-Gzip b0394af324c70ce28067e52cd7bc0c87)

Armbian LCD and Camera

Guide on how to get the camera and the LCD working on the SOPINE on Armbian.

LCD

• DD the Armbian SOPINE image to the microSD Card and run on the board
• Login through the terminal
• vi /boot/armbianEnv.txt (Change off to on): pine64_lcd=on
• vi /etc/modules (Add following line): gt9xxf_ts
• reboot

Then the display will be on LCD and not HDMI

Camera

1. DD the Armbian SOPINE image to the microSD Card and run on the board

2. Login through the terminal

3. Install Ubuntu Xenial Mate with ayufan’s script

   cd ~
   wget https://github.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/raw/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/install_desktop.sh
   chmod +x install_desktop.sh
   ./install_desktop.sh mate
   

4. vi /boot/armbianEnv.txt (Set to “s5k4ec” or “ov5640” depending on your camera module)

   camera_type=s5k4ec
   

5. vi /etc/modules (Add the following depending on your camera_type “s5k4ec” or “ov5640” above. Note that “vfe_v4l2” has a small letter ‘L'2 not 12)

   s5k4ec
   vfe_v4l2
   

6. reboot

7. Following https://github.com/avafinger/pine64_camera (Change “s5k4ec” to “ov5640” depending on your camera module)

   apt-get update
   apt-get upgrade
   apt-get remove --purge guvcview
   apt-get remove --purge libguvcview-1.1-1
   modprobe -r -f vfe_v4l2
   modprobe -r -f s5k4ec
   modprobe s5k4ec
   modprobe vfe_v4l2
   ls /dev/video0
   dmesg | grep OK
   sudo apt-get install libmp3lame-dev libx264-dev libpulse-dev libv4l-dev libsdl1.2-dev libgtk-3-dev portaudio19-dev libpng12-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libpulse-dev libgsl0-dev libv4l-dev
   cd ~
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/avafinger/pine64_camera/master/libguvcview-1.2-1_2.0.3%2Bdebian-1_arm64.deb
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/avafinger/pine64_camera/master/guvcview_2.0.3%2Bdebian-1_arm64.deb
   dpkg -i libguvcview-1.2-1_2.0.3+debian-1_arm64.deb
   dpkg -i guvcview_2.0.3+debian-1_arm64.deb
   

8. For testing, use Xenial Mate -> Applications -> Sound & Video -> guvcview OR command line

   guvcview -d /dev/video0 -x 640x480 -r sdl -f yu12
   guvcview -d /dev/video0 -x 640x480 -r sdl -f nv12
   

Pins and GPIOs

GPIO Alternate Functions Table

This is table of all available GPIOs on SOPine with their alternate functions.

For more information about GPIOs, check the Allwinner A64 Datasheet section 4.2 GPIO Multiplexing Functions and section 4.3 Detailed Pin/Signal Description

Pin Assignment Table

This table contains Pin Assignment of SOPine Edge Finger. For more information about peripherals, GPIOs, powering see:

• Allwinner A64 Datasheet section 4.2 GPIO Multiplexing Functions and section 4.3 Detailed Pin/Signal Description
• Power Management Unit Datasheet

For Edge Finger view, see:

• Edge Finger Pin Assignment Table
• forum.pine64.org: a PDF mapping the pins from the A64 chip itself, to the gold-fingers on the SO-DIMM edge, to the multiple connectors on the baseboard and on the clusterboard, attached to this forum post.

Troubleshooting

There is a number of things that can prevent the board from booting up properly. The most common culprits of a failed boot are:

• Subpar or counterfeit microSD card
• Subpar Power Supply
• High resistance (thin) or a very long microUSB cable
• Failed imaging of the microSD card

To find out more, visit the PINE64 forum thread.

Supported screen resolutions

The board supports a number of video resolutions under Linux, however RemixOS and Android images currently only support 720p and 1080p. Linux supports a wider range of resolutions (see all resolutions supported on Linux here). If the native resolution of your monitor or TV is not compatible with the board you will be unable to get video output working with your screen.

Steps

Follow these steps to determine the cause of your problem:

• Check your PSU and barrel cable ratings
• Download and install a base image of Linux
• Plug in power and ethernet into your Board
• Confirm activity on the ethernet port LED
• Find out the IP of the SOPINE on the router interface
• Try to connect to the running SOPINE from your computer using SSH

Notes

If neither of the above mentioned scenarios fits the problem you are facing, please consult the PINE64 forum thread from user Ghost.

Further information

Specification

Based on the Allwinner A64

CPU Architecture

• Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 Processor@1152Mhz
• A power-efficient ARM v8 architecture
• 64 and 32bit execution states for scalable high performance
• Support NEON Advanced SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instruction for acceleration of media and signal processing function
• Support Large Physical Address Extensions(LPAE)
• VFPv4 Floating Point Unit
• 32KB L1 Instruction cache and 32KB L1 Data cache
• 512KB L2 cache

GPU Architecture

• ARM Mali400MP2 Dual-core GPU
• Supports OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.1 standard

Five megapixel CMOS camera module information:

• PINE64 YL-PINE64-4EC 5M Pixel CMOS Image Sensor Module (Description in Chinese)

Schematics and certifications

SOPINE module schematic:

• SOPINE Module Schematic

SOPINE pin assignments:

• SOPINE Module Pin Assignment ver 1.0

PINE A64-LTS / SOPINE WiFi/BT module schematic:

• PINE A64 WiFi/BT Module Schematic

PINE A64-LTS / SOPINE Stereo Audio DAC board schematic:

• PINE A64-LTS / SOPINE Stereo Audio DAC Board Schematic

SOPINE (together with model “A” baseboard) certification:

• SOPINE with model “A” baseboard FCC Certificate
• SOPINE with model “A” baseboard CE Certificate
• SOPINE with model “A” baseboard RoHS Certificate

PINE A64, PINE A64+, PINE A64-LTS and SOPINE related

Five megapixel CMOS camera module information:

• PINE64 YL-PINE64-4EC 5M Pixel CMOS Image Sensor Module (Description in Chinese)
• S5K4EC 5MP CMOS Image Sensor SoC Module Datasheet
• S5K4EC 5MP CMOS Image Sensor SoC Chip Datasheet
• S5K4EC 5MP CMOS Image Sensor Driver Source Code in C language

Early version Camera module information:

• Bonsen Kexin V118-A64-GC2145-HM5065 CMOS Image Sensor Module
• HiMax 5MP CMOS Image Sensor SoC

LCD Touch Screen Panel information:

• 7.0" 1200x600 TFT-LCD Panel Specification
• Touch Panel Specification
• GOODiX GT911 5-Point Capacitive Touch Controller Datasheet

Lithium battery information:

• 8000mAH Lithium Battery Specification

Ethernet PHY information:

• Realtek RTL8211 10/100/1000M Ethernet Transceiver for PINE A64-LTS Board and SOPINE Baseboard

WiFi/BT module information:

• PINE A64 Wifi/BT Module Schematic
• Realtek RTL8723BS WiFi with BT SDIO

Enclosure information:

• Playbox Enclosure 3D file
• ABS Enclosure 3D file
• Outdoor Aluminum Cast Dust-proof IP67 Enclosure Drawing

Connector information:

• 2.0mm PH Type connector specification use in Lithium Battery (VBAT) port and RTC Battery port
• 0.5mm Pitch cover type FPC connector specification use in DSI port, TP port and CSI port

Remote control button mapping:

• Official Remote Control for the PINE A64 Button Mapping